Selective Electrocatalytic H 2 O 2 Generation by Cobalt@N-Doped Graphitic Carbon Core-Shell Nanohybrids

Electrocatalytic oxygen reduction (ORR) is an emerging synthetic strategy to prepare H2O2 in a sustainable fashion. N-doped graphitic carbon with embedded cobalt nanoparticles was selected as an advanced material able to selectively trigger the ORR to form H2O2 with a faradaic efficiency of almost 100 % at very positive applied potentials. The production of H2O2 proceeded with high rates as calculated by bulk electrolysis (49 mmol g-1 h-1) and excellent current densities (?-0.8 mA cm-2 at 0.5 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode). The totally selective behavior depended on the combination of concomitant material features, such as the textural properties, the nature of the metal, the distribution of N moieties, the acidic environment, and the applied potential.